‘Justified,’ Season 2, Episode 6, ‘Blaze of Glory’: TV Recap

Winona is caught up in a bank robbery which could have troublesome complications, and Raylan desperately tries to help her, in last night’s episode of "Justified," “Blaze Of Glory”.

Before we dig in, there’s little of the ongoing story threads in this ep, but here goes: Boyd and Ava are hauled in to the ATF offices, getting grilled over the botched robbery/explosion at the mine. Boyd is a cool customer, but chafes when one of the Feds leans on Ava a bit too hard. The Fed perceives Boyd’s comment as a threat to his person, and presses to nail Boyd to the wall. Luckily, Art comes in and diffuses the situation, at least for now.

Now, the main story. Winona and Gary argue over the latest mess Gary’s gotten them into, namely, taking out a second mortgage in order to purchase a racehorse. Totally preoccupied with fresh money worries, Winona gets inside the evidence locker and finds a box filled with old one hundred dollar bills. She takes one and heads to the bank to, aw hell, she doesn’t really know what she’s doing. All she knows is that there’s a box of money that could solve her problems. But just then, a crew of bank robbers, seemingly led by an old man with a portable oxygen tank, busts in and do what bank robbers do. One of the crew, a sleazy punk named Carter, messes around with Winona, noticing that she’s trying to hide the old C-note. He takes the bill, kicks Winona in the face for holding out on him.

Raylan, Art and the other Marshals start investigating. Turns out that the old man is Frank Reasoner, a legendary bank robber that has just served a 30 year stint in prison, recently let out because he’s dying of emphysema. Art recalls being involved in the manhunt for Reasoner all those years ago. As for Raylan, he just wants at the dude who hurt Winona.

They bring in Reasoner’s wife Jenny, who has no clue why her husband is on his current crime spree. Meanwhile, Winona realizes that she may have a big problem on her hands: the deputy Marshals are tracing the bills that were stolen, saying that some of them may be “super dollars”, old bills out of circulation. Winona finds out that the old bill she had in her possession can be traced back to the evidence room. If that happens, she’s screwed. She tells Raylan, giving him an even more urgent reason to find the robbers.

Speaking of whom, Carter is growing antsy and impatient with old man Reasoner, with dim-witted Bobby Green (the third robber) caught in the middle of their power play. Right before they plan to hit another bank, Reasoner pulls a gun on Carter, but seemingly has some kind of seizure. Carter laughs at the old man’s misfortune and leaves with Bobby, even as Frank could be dying as they speak.

The Marshals are preparing to ambush the robbers at one location, but it seems too easy. Sure enough, Raylan gets a call tipping off their real target, another bank. Raylan goes there, encounters Carter and Bobby, who realize that they’ve been played by Reasoner. Raylan coolly dispatches Dumb and Dumber, getting a measure of satisfaction by knocking Carter out with one punch.

As for Reasoner, he’s tracked down at the local air hangar by Art, who finds out that the old bank robber has been practicing on a flight simulator with plans to fly out of the country. It’s a funny sight indeed, an old man lugging an oxygen tank being chased by an aging Marshal with bad knees. But Art gets his man, alright. Raylan shows up on the scene, offers to take the money to the office. Art takes him up on it. Of course, Raylan has specific plans, and indeed, he sees Winona later, with three old hundred dollar bills, one of which is hopefully the bill. Problem solved, right?

Well, if next week’s any indication, the answer is negative. And I’m looking forward to it, if only to enjoy more Winona front and center in the story. Yeah...more Winona, that’s the ticket...